Live 9: Do I seriously have to have my buffer at 512 w/ brand new Macbook Pro 2.8ghz quad core and thunderbolt interface?

After spending $4500 on the fastest available thunderbolt interface (that I know of - Motu AVB 1248) and a brand new, maxed-out Macbook Pro (2.8ghz quad-core, 16gb RAM, OS 10.9.5), I'm finding that with a relatively simple project with 10 channels and 4 return tracks and very minimal plug-ins (just an EQ eight on each channel, and the looper plug-in on 4 of the channels, plus one lexicon reverb and one chorus effect - no software instruments, no pre-recorded samples loaded, no other programs running etc.) I STILL have to set the audio buffer at 512 samples in order to avoid pops/clicks!!!!!

At 96khz my roundtrip latency including the interface and Ableton's latency could be 1.25ms if I could run the buffer at 32samples...or 1.58ms at 64samples...was hoping for 64 or at LEAST 128...

Am I insane for expecting better performance out of this setup? What are other peoples' experiences? What is your setup and how low have you been able to run the buffer in Live 9? Any info is much appreciated!

I'm really astounded because when I previously owned Live 8 I was getting it to run a similar project at 64 or 128 (buffer) with a much less powerful computer (2.5ghz duo core) and a basic firewire interface. My net roundtrip latency with this new setup is pretty much the same as the old setup. I feel like I've totally wasted my life savings. Am I missing something??

40 answers

How has noone from ableton commented on this issue? This is bullshit for a 900$ software

1 year ago|
0 comments

hbornste

contribution
2 answers 7 votes received

6 votes

Having very similar issue. Running a maxed out Mac Pro with an Apogee Symphony and I can't run more than 7-8 tracks without Ableton 9 becoming unusably slow. Live 8 runs flawlessly. Ableton, stop adding new features and gimmicks. Fix the basics.

I returned the 2013 and kept using my 2012. For what it's worth, I've had excellent latency results with the Zoom TAC-2 Thunderbolt interface, and I routinely run sessions with many plugins at a 64 sample buffer.

1 year ago|
0 comments

Ace_Tatsu

contribution
2 answers 4 votes received

3 votes

Hi Team,

Im having the sam eproblems. Anyone find a solution? Im using ableton Push and Live 9 standard with a steinberg UR22 soundcard. Works perfectly with other Daws. My problem surfaces when I have the Push connected. Disconnected, I do the sound test and the pops stop at about 256 samples with input latency at 9.34 and output latency at 11.3 overall at 33.7 This is on my home PC. I havent tried it on my macbook pro...but I will this week and report if I have the same issue. I have to believe that its something that needs to be updated in the software. Computers not overloaded at all. Tough to work in the studio with crackles every few seconds using Push. The Mac would be used Live....but ill have to do extensive testing to trust it right now. If anyone has any answers, would be greatly appreciated. Cheers all!

P.S. Have you guys found tech support helpful in these instances? Best way to contact them?

Very interesting JJ. Glad to know it might not just be me. And good tip about making sure the interface is selected when closing Ableton, I didn't know about that.

As for 64 vs. 32 bit: for what it's worth, I started with the 64-bit version and had the above experience, then switched to 32-bit to see if THAT helped at all, as Ableton seems pretty anti-64-bit right now. Since posting the original above I've even tried taking off all the eq plug-ins in my project (leaving nothing but the looper plug-ins themselves on the 8 channels, plus a reverb and delay) and even cut the number of channels to 4, and still couldn't get lower than 256 buffer at 96k. An audio engineer who knows a ton more than I do about this stuff warned me that the new Apple architecture was going in a really bad direction for audio work. Should have listened but didn't think a quad-core 2.8ghz could possibly perform WORSE than a 2010 duo core 2.5ghz!

Just did more tests today. Lowest latency settings possible with no pops/clicks etc.:

The thunderbolt interface itself has only about 1.3ms of roundtrip hardware latency, compared to the firewire which has about 5ms hardware latency, so it's all the more confounding.

In conclusion, what the ____? Are the new Apples really that much WORSE than the ones from 2010?!

Anyone else out there? JJ I'll be curious what your experience is w/ 64-bit if you try it...

2 years ago|
0 comments

polar_bear

contribution
13 answers 23 votes received

2 votes

Interesting deviantkirby. The 64-bit version of Ableton supposedly CAN access all 16gb of RAM, and that's what I tried first. Still horrible performance. I'm stumped. Going to have to return or ebay my computer and thunderbolt interface today. Totally not worth the money to have even worse latency than my old setup. I'm just amazed that Ableton works at all for others in a live instrument / live audio situation (as opposed to pre-recorded tracks which can be buffered etc.) Apparently my standards are just outrageously high? Do people like playing with 10ms of latency? deviantkirby what were you able to get your latency down to?

I don't mean to be bashing Apple or Ableton but just honestly trying to understand if this is normal and something that people put up with, or if there's something wrong with my setup.

2 years ago|
0 comments

deviantkirby

contribution
2 answers 3 votes received

2 votes

My understanding is the 64 bit should be able to use that extra RAM as well. Now that I've cleaned up some issues inside my computer it moves pretty fast. 128 buffer setting currently. As I mentioned before I don't use much inside the computer and routinely the Activity Monitor says I'm using 3.5-3.8 GB of memory. Doing nothing but idling. Have you used the Activity Monitor to see if anything is gobbling up power? Also my buddy said to check out to see if there are any updates on your interface's drivers. I checked the Focusrite site ( I have a shitty interface! ) and found that Maverick doesn't play well and Focusrite offered a work around. Sending positive thoughts your way!

2 years ago|
0 comments

edmannprc

contribution
4 answers 5 votes received

2 votes

This thread has been extremely helpful, thank you. I was just about to drop major bread on a new MacBook and LIVE 9. Instead I think I will check into old CPU technology that functions well with old versions of LiVE, and also develop Reaper or maybe Cubase. And get a hardware synth. I depend on Collision, it is the best mallet synth ever, but even more, I depend on being able to play music, and not spending weeks chasing elusive problems. If it was only windows, I would understand due to the many different manufacturers, but if this is what is going on with Macs?! Forget it, something is really wrong.

2 years ago|
0 comments

polar_bear

contribution
13 answers 23 votes received

2 votes

30ms of latency on MIDI seems outrageous - you sure there isn't some other setting somewhere? I agree Live should be better than it is as far as latency, but 30ms? There must be something else going on, I would think...

2 years ago|
0 comments

harlandjo

contribution
1 answer 2 votes received

2 votes

Having issues as well on a top of the line MacBook Pro 15 and external interface.

The lag between sound output and visuals is around a second, which makes Live very uncomfortable to use.

Maybe it's time to consider Logic...

1 year ago|
0 comments

Frelancr

contribution
1 answer 2 votes received

2 votes

I wouldn't say its strictly an Apple issue. I'm running Live 9 Suite with a Push onWin7 with a i7-4790k overclocked to 4.6ghz and 8gb of ram and I am getting tears while running single synth tracks or doing basic sampling work at a sample rate of 128 on a small focusrite interface. This is incredibly frustrating as I have used this computer for 3d modeling and video editing without issue. It seems to be a multi-core processor issue. Ableton, PLEASE fix this. Don't say it can't be done, because your competitors are doing it. I'm not sayin' I'm gonna take my ball and go home just yet, but please please please fix this through an update and NOT by trying to sell us a new version. That would be bogus on a lot of levels and would significantly damage your brand.

1 year ago|
0 comments

khiner

contribution
4 answers 5 votes received

2 votes

I figured it out! I can't find any mention of it online, but this seems to be an issue with El Capitan's thunderbolt audio. In a last ditch attempt, I grabbed a USB cable and took out the thunderbolt and it completely fixed the issue! This only started happening after the upgrade, so in my case at least the blame lies entirely on Apple. This El Capitan release has been bad for musicians in so many ways.

Anyway, I'm now able to comfortably run without glitchy crackles down to a 128 sample buffer size and a 48 kHz rate (actually 96 kHz runs fine, too).

I am having the same problem. Though my setup uses a Thunderbolt adaptor to Firewire interface. Some have suggested that my duo core being 2.66Ghz performed better (even though it was 4 years older) than my 2.5Ghz quad core (Haswell) because Ableton cannot assign more than one core to a channel. I have yet to understand how that might relate to groups. And the performance difference is greater than even that anyway. The Mac seems zippy in all other ways but I run my machine at a 256 sample buffer instead of 128 now. I improved my glitching/(& CPU meter) by turning off instances of Kontakt that I wasn't using during part of a piece. Next I'm going to try 64-bit mode. Though nothing officially suggests this will help, it was suggested. Like you say "life savings." Worth a try.

One thing to do is to make sure the interface is selected when you shut down Ableton. I have had it look even worse when I select the interface AFTER Ableton has started. (I never saw the CPU meter at 130% before.) It almost seems to learn the interface after a couple boots. I know that sounds crazy. I will report if I have any improvement with 64-bit mode.

Hey there! I'm definitely a newer Ableton guy and I recently had the classic Ableton stutter start up. I don't have nearly as powerful of a machine as either of you though I don't use any outside VST's currently. During my searches I found out that the glitches or stutters come from Ableton running out of available memory. Even if you have 16 Gb of memory the 32 bit version of Ableton will only use 4 Gb. I downloaded a free app yesterday called Memory Diag from the app store which has helped me out immensely. Before using the app 3.5 Gb of memory was being used which was funny to me because I don't use my laptop for anything other than Ableton. No Calendar. No iTunes. No iPhoto. Nothing but Safari and Ableton. After using the app my memory being used dropped to 1.8 Gbs. Truly amazing. I have no affiliation with Memory Diag, just someone who was freaking out that I wouldn't be able to use my computer for Ableton! Hope this helps.

2 years ago|
0 comments

polar_bear

contribution
13 answers 23 votes received

1 vote

Thanks - good idea about Activity Monitor. Yeah I get the same readout of about 3.5 - 3.8gb of RAM being used when just idling (with Live open but not doing anything.) CPU usage is quite low though (again with Live open, and even when running a few loopers.) I'm sure I could get RAM usage much lower if I stripped unnecessary stuff off the laptop (Keynote, numbers, pages, Garage Band, iMovie, etc.) But as I had the 64-bit version of Ableton originally and had the same problems as now, I'm not sure that insufficient RAM is really the issue. Maybe it is the Motu drivers, and/or just something about the new Apple architecture, not sure. Motu has been updating their drivers and firmware and I've been updating accordingly, but so far not seeing any major improvement - maybe a little bit. Seems to be just about ok at 256 buffer now, although I turned off all the RTA on the eq's so it might just be from that.

2 years ago|
0 comments

polar_bear

contribution
13 answers 23 votes received

1 vote

Alright did a couple more tests. I hadn't yet compared the old laptop vs. new laptop using the same firewire interface. When I did, I found the new (2.8ghz quad-core w/ faster RAM) laptop to be AT BEST equal to the 2009 (2.5ghz duo-core, slower RAM) laptop, and possibly a hair slower even. Comparison was done using PreSonus Firestudio Project 8ch. interface, with an Ableton project consisting of 4 looper tracks, 4 empty tracks for recording live audio into clips, and a reverb return and chorus return, with EQ eights on all channels and returns and the master. Also two additional send & return tracks with no plug-ins just for routing incoming signal to the looper tracks. I was only using one of the two send tracks.

Can't believe it but I guess it really was the new laptop. Or perhaps something deep under the hood that I don't understand, like Ableton and/or PreSonus' and/or Motu's OS 10.9 compatibility/optimization. But in any case, the much less powerful 2009 laptop outperforms the brand new maxed-out 2014 laptop.

Apple was amazing and let me return the new laptop. Now I'm wondering if there's hope for getting Ableton to work at low enough latency if I get a maxed-out desktop machine (Mac Pro 3.7ghz quad-core?)

Anyone out there have any experience with lowest possible latency on a laptop vs. desktop? Is it about CPU power, or speed of the RAM, or speed of the hard drive, or....?

2 years ago|
0 comments

edmannprc

contribution
4 answers 5 votes received

1 vote

I am in LIVE 8.4.1 and using a usb interface but have a similar situation, my 2005 under equipped IBM t-42 running this version of LIVE beats the pants off a 2011 ASUS win7 i5 laptop made for media and normal moderate gaming.. Better latency, more VST voices, much better MIDI processing. I am wondering if it is running 32 bit ableton in a 64 bit OS environment.

2 years ago|
0 comments

polar_bear

contribution
13 answers 23 votes received

1 vote

edmannprc, wow, that is insane. I'm glad it's not just me. As for 64 vs. 32 bit, I tried both version of Live 9 within days of eachother on the same (new) machine and it really didn't make a difference for the little project I was running. Both versions I still had to have the buffer about the same in order to avoid pops/clicks/dropouts/distortion etc. But maybe on PC it's different, you could be right...

2 years ago|
0 comments

MAXTHEDOG

contribution
4 answers 4 votes received

1 vote

Hi all, my two cents worth: I've upgraded from L8 to 9 when it was released and I've had the same - pops,crackles and generally an inferior performance. I've got a late 2009 MBP running 8GB RAM, 1TB 7200 rpm HDD, 2.53 processor etc. Hardly ever use it, use L8, PT8, or dare I say it Reason 6.5. All work perfectly. Would've bought Push if it hadn't been for these problems. Have just accepted that that is how it is going to be. sometimes I have a notion of going back to hardware as I'm from the generation that grew up with it. still have an Emu sampler, Waldorf Q rack, Supernova MK2, and a Roland MC 909. Sorry I can't offer any help.

2 years ago|
0 comments

risome1

contribution
9 answers 9 votes received

1 vote

I would say its the 96kHz that is causing problems.My New Tr-8 drum machine runs at 96Khz via its USB audio interface and when recording the audio down from my drum tracks i get pops and crackles so i bypass that by recording from the drum machines audio outputs to a new audio channel one instrument at a time .You have to select the TR-8s audio interface if you want to record via the TR8s USB interface and Ableton crashes when you shut down with this interface selected.I use a Focusrite Saffire pro 40 with my 2007 2.8gHz core duo iMac at 44khz and have no problems.As soon a si go into 96kHz land boom pops crackles and crash.have you tried running your new set up at 44.1.I jumped in here as my iMac just died so i am going to buy a new MacBook Pro 2.8gHz quad and run my interface via Thunderbolt to firewire adapter and would expect it to handsomely outperform my old machine.No 96 for me don't need it.

Cheers Risome

2 years ago|
0 comments

Rom-K

contribution
1 answer 1 vote received

1 vote

Hi guys,Same issue for me. I just buy Ableton Live Suite and Push. Before I am working with Live lite 9 and Logic Pro X.But for some reason (that I don't understand), now in Live 9 suite, with only one track with (by exemple Spire) I have some clicks, pops, distorsion... Only one synth and nothing more. With buffer size at 512... Or more is the same issue.My config : IMac Intel Core i7 2,8Ghz 16Gb RAM, sound card : TC Electronic Desktop Konnect 6, OS : Maverick Is it incredible that Lite version works better.I think that Ableton need to Update Live, because, in this configuration, it can't be used for live performance and bad in Studio.

Oh yeah and Ableton Live used is 64bits version. And test in 44.1, 88.2... Same issue !

2 years ago|
0 comments

polar_bear

contribution
13 answers 23 votes received

1 vote

Wow - really interesting to hear everyone's experiences. I don't mean to be bashing Ableton, just trying to figure out if there's a way to get it to work - but for now I've had to return the laptop, return the thunderbolt interface, and go back to my old (not ableton-related) setup. I do hope it's just a matter of giving Apple and/or Ableton some time to work things out and better optimize their stuff. I really hope it happens soon, for all of our sakes! Like you said edmannprc, we depend on being able to play music rather than spend 98% of our time chasing down problems!!

I had expected stellar performance from this machine, but an older 10.8.5. 2.6GhZ i7 with 8 GB Ram performs way better...

Mavericks problem?

2 years ago|
0 comments

hbornste

contribution
2 answers 7 votes received

1 vote

not sure why the mods deleted my post. I was simply expressing the fact that I am experiencing similar poor performance on a brand new machine.

1 year ago|
0 comments

hushpuppy

contribution
1 answer 1 vote received

1 vote

Please help a Live Newbee from avoiding a costly mistake? Have Live9 Suite + Push. Looking for a dedicated Apple laptop for live performance and an audio interface. Am very confused after reading this thread, but am decided it will be an Apple.Have long history with them. Am replacing a 2006 15” MBPro with Core Duo

I am considering three machines and actually thinking the cheapest - #1 might be best: (can upgrade RAM to 16Gb and HD to SSD with existing parts from OWC). It also has a firewire 800, USB3, thunderbolt1 port, and a DVD burner on board and costs 700-$1,000 less.I will run with a 24” external monitor.All would run OSX Yosemite

Which would you recommend and why? This is just for Live9 Suite and Push.

1 year ago|
0 comments

NakdYummyMix

contribution
1 answer 1 vote received

1 vote

I just got 9.2, this required an upgrade to OSX Lion (which I didn't want to get having read about it) Fair enough, my computer is pretty old and not the best (2.4 dual core macbook) but I checked that my specs would work and my projects are always pretty small using 48khz. Everything was fine on Snow Leopard with 9.1 ... Now it's not. I was happy to hear the improvements in warping/pitching initially but as my tracks grow the pops and clicks are terrible, especially with bass frequencies,it lags too. After seeing this thread I think we can be fairly certain that it's an Apple OS problem. Lion is awful so I imagine the later are going further in the same direction. I don't know what to do and I am not sure if any of us can blame Ableton but it would be nice if they gave us some feedback. Seems a little bit ignored.

I make sure (using Activity Monitor) to be in a "not-random" RAM usage situation. I mean: when I quit everything to run Live, I ALWAYS have 4 Gb RAM free, and I monitor not to fall in bad garbage-collection situation after some time, in which case I reboot the Mac. In other words, I make sure that my Mac is running ONLY what i want it to run, not some other hidden shit.

Just my 2 cents.

Nick

1 year ago|
0 comments

zach witness

contribution
1 answer 1 vote received

1 vote

try activating "Prevent App Nap" from ableton app info window...

1. Open applications folder and locate Ableton Live 9

2. Right click icon and select "get Info"

3. turn on "Prevent App Nap"

Went from a buffer rate of 1024 to now 64 as a result :)

1 year ago|
0 comments

khiner

contribution
4 answers 5 votes received

1 vote

I'm running into the same issues. I'm running Live 9.5 64 bit on a MOTU 1248 and a 27-inch iMac with a 3.5 GHz i7 processor, 16GB DDR3 memory and a 3 TB fusion drive that's not close to filled up. With basically no effects and a single track of active audio, I'll get semi-frequent (once-per minute or so) cracks and pops unless I put my buffer size at 1024 or higher and the sample rate at 48K or lower. My target for what I'd consider usable is a 48 kHz sample rate and 512 buffer size. Of course, I'd love to go even lower latency since I do a lot of live recording, and I totally think that's a reasonable expectation with this setup. One thing to note - I don't think this ever used to happen before I updated to El Capitan, but they make it almost impossible to downgrade so I can't easily test that.

I tried all of the advice I could find online - turning off sleep mode completely, disabling "put hard disks to sleep", selecting "Prevent app nap" for the Ableton app, removing all startup applications, reducing the number of activated I/O channels on the Ableton settings for my interface, closing other applications, making sure nothing's going nuts in the Activity Monitor.

Running a Macbook Pro i7 with 16gb ram, SSD drive.Had nothing but trouble with Ableton since V9, like someone else mentioned, I can run about 5-10 tracks with Simpler and native ableton plugins.

From what I can gather Warp Modes and very CPU hungry, Simpler is always glitching out with warp enabled.

How they can even call this programme Live is beyond me. I would never trust Ableton now in a Live situation.

8 was rock solid.

I have Push 2, Ableton Suite and have bought nearly all their packs and I feel completely ripped off.

11 months ago|
0 comments

allsong

contribution
3 answers 4 votes received

1 vote

Same problems! PC i7 / Win 10 / RME Babyface / 8gb ram

11 months ago|
0 comments

ronsonol04

contribution
1 answer 1 vote received

1 vote

I make too complex music for these problems. I can't even get a track 1/2 of the way done, because Ableton can't run more than 20 tracks. This is BS and I'm seriously considering switching DAWs or finding a way to get live 8 and see if that works any better...

Sadly it's the same for me as well. I'm on pc, but before that I was a macbook user and I was having the same problems though. hopefully it works out on the update, but its not looking good since I tried the beta version of live 9.6 and its still acting up on there.

10 months ago|
0 comments

[daw] Ableton staff

contribution
208 answers 256 votes received

1 vote

Hi all,

Just a little reminder, that this is a very broad topic, and just because you might experience symptoms, similar to other users, this doesn't necessarily mean, that the problem is the same.

We would love to look into these issues on a case by case basis, so please feel free to drop any information you can add plus a Status Report to our support staff right here:

On a more general note, I would just like to point out, that in terms of performance, there is a limit to every computer out there. While computers might become faster every year, software also advances continuously and tries to make use of this performance gain.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Best,

daw

10 months ago|
0 comments

noou

contribution
1 answer 1 vote received

1 vote

Just wanted to report my experience:

I own a MacBook Pro with a i7-4960HQ CPU, SSD drive and 16Gb RAM (that is quite a powerful laptop), and I use audio software under both Mac OS and Windows via Bootcamp. I use Live 9.6.
In my experience (I made computer music for 16 years), a lot depends on the quality of audio interface drivers. In addition, on a Windows machine, one has to implement a few tricks to optimize the OS (not too difficult).
Examples:

With a brand new MOTU Ultralite AVB (USB) I cannot run any complex projects (hitting 50-60% CPU load) at less than 256 samples @ 48KHz. Performance is slightly better under Mac OS.

With a RME UCX (USB) I can run the same complex projects at 96 samples @ 48KHz under both Windows and Mac OS.

I just recently started experiencing massive CPU loads and spikes hitting sometimes 180% levels when playing bass sounds causing pops, clicks, delays and all sort of weird noises.

this just randomly started out of nowhere, I had been working with the latest version of live 9.6.1 since it came out and everything was fine until a few days ago. I am not sure what has changed but it's rather annoying..

about a month ago I had screen recorded one of my projects to show a friend on facebook and luckily I kept the video footage so I compared the performance i get now vs what it was a month ago with the same project, settings and computer..

here's the footage (check the CPU loads in the upper right corner, the first portion of the video is the old footage hence the video on video low quality):

setup:

Windows 8.1

CPU: AMD fx 8320 8 core 3.5ghz

16gb RAM

Steinberg UR 22 audio interface

buffer size: 1024 (I used to use 256 and things were fine)

multicore support: ON

5 months ago|
0 comments

SoundFu5ion

contribution
1 answer 1 vote received

1 vote

I seemed to have found a decent fix for those of you who may have upgraded to Windows 10. I changed my power settings to High Performance and it seemed to help a lot.

4 months ago|
0 comments

dumbeat

contribution
1 answer 1 vote received

1 vote

I'm running Macbook pro i7 2.7 quad core. OS X 10.10.5

Logic handles a ton of processing and dozens of tracks, as does pro Tools.

Live 9.6 gets very slow in responding and i get the spinning pizza of death quite often.

I erased my entire HD and reinstalled OS X and only Live 9.6. What can be cleaner??

My Interface is Apollo Twin, which runs perfectly and takes its own processing power from its own internal cpu.

I do not find Live to be a very reliable software even though I've spent on it more hard earned money then on any other software in my life.

Due diligence, I've been producing on computers for 25 years, and went through the entire evolution of the thing.

Im scared of going on stage with this thing and and even at the studio I'm tired of all the bugs.

Get it fixed or refund. Its too expensive to be beta...

3 months ago|
0 comments

Juniper00

contribution
1 answer 1 vote received

1 vote

Coming to this 1 yr later, hopefully you all have sorted things out. I am having this same digital crackling problem all over my tracks while I'm recording live audio. I'm using a mid 2014 powerbook 16 GB 1600 MHz DDR3, 2.2 GHz Intel Core i7. Having been using Macs to make music for 18 yrs, my assessment is this: post-Jobian Apple = big probs. EVERYTHING has changed with apple and it's not looking good.

I was using Ableton 9 Lite with Scarlett 6x6 interface and could not stand this regular (every few minutes, lasting several seconds, enough to ruin a good take) crackling, so I upgraded to 9 Standard, thinking it was their way of getting you to upgrade and there it is still! I am having this same problem using it with Mavericks and El Capitan both. I have done everything according to Ableton's FAQ on buffer size/CPU load. For years, I was using a 1998 beige G3 desktop, using internal sound card (!) and Cubase VST with all kinds of MIDI and live audio recording. Never had such latency, crackling issues. At worst it was all about extensions conflicts back then.

Of course, even the finest laptops are not as sturdy as desktop computers. However, I suspected that it was an Ableton issue as well, maybe because Ableton did not start out creating a DAW for acoustic-instrument-recording musicians? I've been totally flabbergasted in kin with polar_bear on this. You put all this dough into investing in 'top' gear and you feel a bit screwed in the end.

One suggestion for latency issues: If you have a monitor out on your audio interface, use that instead of monitoring through Ableton--pretty obvious, but...

I am still stuck with navigating buffer size, latency and crackling, after having considered every suggestion above.